Week 16, Everyday I'm Shufflin'

WOW!!  What a crazy, busy, fun week it was!  The week started off on the right note with Tommy FINALLY making a poo-poo in the potty!  As his reward, he was able to play with his new Buzz Lightyear toy for 5 minutes.  Now, he has only gotten to play with his special toy twice this week, but still--that is 2 more times that I thought would happen, so I'm pleased!  In the meantime, Ethan has picked up on the phrase "P.U. Stinky"--he's so darn cute when he says it "Eeeee Uuuuuuu Teen-key"!  Take a look at my cutie-pie reading his little book on the potty--sorry, I just couldn't resist--so cute!!

I tried to get a lot done with the boys on Monday and Tuesday because the rest of the week was pretty hectic!  So, we made some "butterflies" for the first time with the boys, and Tommy really understood and thought it was cool (he wanted to show Daddy everyday--"Look at my butterfly paint!").  After the butterflies, you'll see a few more art pieces that were done at OT this week--my big guy is becoming quite the artist!  The first and fourth pictures are some of little E's first independent pieces of art!

Tommy also had a few classic kid-lines this week that kept us laughing for a while.  The first one I already shared on facebook, but in case you didn't see it....we're eating lunch one day, and Tommy grabs his PB&J, takes the 2 sides apart, holds the jelly side up right in front of his mouth and says, "Helloooo Jelly...it's me....Tommy" in a very "we meet again" type of voice before he tears into the poor jelly bread!  I have no idea where he got that from, but it was hilarious!  Another one that had us both rolling was when we were in the car.  Tommy LOVES music, so if he starts whining or misbehaving in the car, we turn off the music.  He usually immediately starts saying, "Daddy/Mommy I want music on please!!" and forgets about his previous woes.  Well, we pulled the same tactic this time, but this time when we asked him what he needed to say to get the music back on, he replied, "DADDY, STOP WHINING PLEASE, MUSIC ON PLEASE!"

Okay, back to the actual week (btw, we realize that we find the 'cute' little stories about our boys way cuter than anyone else!).  So, back to Wednesday.  After therapy, I dropped the boys off at Goggi and Gramps' house where they had a nice playdate with Kathryn and Lilly.  Once I dropped them off, I headed over to 'The Stockroom' in Raleigh--the site of Sara Griffin's wedding reception.  We spent the afternoon setting up a simply gorgeous reception for their wedding on Friday.  That evening, I went to 'Solas' in Raleigh for the bachelorette party--it was AMAZING!  We had drinks and ate tapas while lounging back in couches on the rooftop.  It was a perfect setting--I felt like I was in NY city or something--such a neat place for a girl's night out!  We had an absolute blast--as you can probably tell from the pictures below :)

On Thursday, I decided I better try on the dress I had planned to wear to Sara's wedding the next day--it's the same dress I wore to the PT Christmas party in December of this past year.  Well......it was TOO BIG!  I was obviously happy about that, BUT time to panic because I didn't really have a solid backup plan.  I called my Mom's friend that we've known since I was in like 3rd grade and left her a desperate message that morning seeing if she could alter my dress, but as of 4:30pm, I hadn't heard back.  Thankfully, I was meeting an old high school friend, Mandy Becker, for dinner.  We had a wonderful time catching up, and it's so nice to reconnect with her again after all of this time.  While we were eating, Kelly called and told me to come on over to her place after dinner and she'd alter the dress for me that night while I waited--SCORE!!  So, here's a picture of me and Mandy leaving the restaurant before I went to grab my dress!

Friday was another jam-packed day.  Getting ready for a wedding on a workday with 2 little guys can be tough!  Finally 4pm rolled around, and we dropped off the boys with Grandma and headed to Raleigh!  The wedding was so sweet--Sara was the most bubbling, excited, and flat-out giddy bride I've ever seen in my life!  As she has impeccable taste, everything looked amazing--her dress, the bridesmaids dresses, the ceremony, and of course the reception!  Julie Luchene and I were charged with greeting all of the guests as they entered the reception, and we were fortunate enough to sit with our good friends Mike & Megan Danaher at the reception.  As you can see below, Davey and Mike always have a good laugh together!

It was so nice to have the evening to ourselves, and thankfully for us, that continued on Saturday!  The boys spent the night with Grandma and Granddad, so we were able to sleep in all the way until 7:45am LOL!  After I went to workout (fill you in on all of that later), we got ready and headed to the annual NC State Spring Football Game at Carter-Finley!  While the game itself wasn't all that thrilling, Mother Nature came through with some excitement of her own by DRENCHING us a few minutes short of halftime.  We decided to bail since we already had plans to eat the boys' favorite "Sketteees" and homemade bread at my parents house.  When we got there, Uncle NoNo and Aunt LoLo were already there, having beaten us back from UNC where my brother Nolan competed in the Tar Heel 10-miler (and, first real race in years!).  Nolan finished 9th out of 172 men in his age bracket, averaging less than 7 minute miles the entire race in HILLY Chapel Hill--so proud of him!  Nolan decided to let Tommy in on what it feels like to fly--you've got to watch this video of my tooterbear flapping his arms--BAHAHAHA!!

So, we finally went home late Saturday night with the boys, and woke up for church early on Sunday.  I unfortunately had a funeral to attend at 3pm on Sunday, but it ended up being a positive experience.  They did such a wonderful job of celebrating this dear woman's life--a woman who truly lived her life to the fullest, was kind, sweet, and positive always, and truly a pleasure to be around at all times.  I took a few things away from the funeral of Judy Hair:  1)  I sincerely hope that I can have as great of an impact on my friends, family, and community as this woman has had, 2)  priorities, priorities, priorities--it's too easy to get caught up in the rat race that is life in America.  Pay attention to the things that really matter--God, family, relationships, simplicity, and good old fashioned fun.  In the end, those are the things that matter most--not money, not fame or position, and not yourself, and 3)  I want my funeral to be a true celebration of Jesus and the free gift of grace and salvation He offers to each of us and of my life. 

After a family trip to the grocery store, which both boys actually loved, we finally were all home together to relax for the rest of the evening.  It was a truly wonderful week.  As for the weight-loss update, I realized that I didn't post an update for Week 15.  Well, not shockingly, I was up a pound after all of my gallivanting in Week 14.  What is shocking however, is that I was down 2 pounds this week, after my "soul food" weekend at Grandma's--maybe there's something to this real food movement--HA!  So, I'm back on my one pound a week pace--16 in 16--woohoo!  However, for the third straight week, I'm going to have to predict a gain this week, despite 5 hard workouts...too much shufflin'!!